LABOUR DEPARTMENT REPORT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9028, 15 January 1908, Page 5

LABOUR DEPARTMENT REPORT.

CONDITIONS OP EMLPOYMENT AND TRADE. The Labour Department's monthly report on the conditions of employment ai?d trade is to hand. Speaking of Masterton the report says: —During December trade ,generally has shown an increase compared with the corresponding period last year. The building trades continues brisk, and the same remark applies to coach building and painting. Moulding has slackened off somewhat. Tailoring has been very brisk, and several good hands could find employment. Building trades in all branches brisk, with pron ise of continuance. Coach building and painting: Very busy, with a number of orders still on hand; repair work has also been satisfactory. Plumbing and jgasfitting: Very busy, and likely to continue so for some time to come. General smithing: Brisk. j Engineering: Fair medium busi- j noss reported. j Moulding: Slack. Furniture trades: Faii'ly busy; all hands fully employed. Saddle and harness making: Good sound business being done. Tailoring: Brisk, with fair number of orders still on hand. Dressmaking and millinery: Good. Boots (repairs and retail): Business has been of a satisfactory nature. Sash and door factories:' All hands kept fully employed. Retail trade (general): Good volume of business reported. Unskilled labour: During the period under review, four men were placed in private employment. Others could have been placed in the country, but were disinclined to leave the town. Regarding Tinui the report says Unskilled labour: All local men have been fully employed during the month at shearing, roadwork, haymaking, and scrub-cutting. Shearing is now about finished, and about two hundred men left the district for their homes in various parts of the dominion. No swaggers were seen on j the road during the month.